i don't see the point in sanctioning the school so far after the fact. they are punishing the wrong people. if they wanna strip old wins away fine , but screwing up the careers of people who had nothing to do with it is wrong. if there's going to be a message sent , then it should be from the courts in the form of prison time and lawsuits against the individuals who had knowledge of the crimes and allowed them to be swept under the carpet.

__________________“If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” ― James Madison

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." -Thomas Jefferson
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson

i don't see the point in sanctioning the school so far after the fact. they are punishing the wrong people. if they wanna strip old wins away fine , but screwing up the careers of people who had nothing to do with it is wrong. if there's going to be a message sent , then it should be from the courts in the form of prison time and lawsuits against the individuals who had knowledge of the crimes and allowed them to be swept under the carpet.

NCAA sanctions always punishing the current players and coaches for past sins (e.g. - Pete Carroll may have known Reggie Bush and his family were getting paid, but Pete and Reggie had moved on when the NCAA dropped the hammer on USC). Hitting a program with its future competitiveness is how meaningful NCAA sanctions work.

Don't worry about senior Penn State officials going to jail for the cover-up and Penn State writing some big checks - that will happen as well.

However, since the main finnacial beneficiary of a sucessful football program is the Penn State athletic department, not the players, the NCAA properly is dropping the hammer on the program

Even I am not cynical enough to believe JoePa & friends were motivated solely to protect a pedophile who was also a colleague. So what were they protecting? A compelling argument can be made they were protecting the football program from taking the PR hit from having a pedophile revealed to have been embeddded within the program for decades, which in turn would hammer recruiting, fundraising for a major expansion of Beaver Stadium in the late 90s, and success on the field that funded the athletic department while maintaining alumni loyalty for future fundraising. In other words the cover-up was designed to maintain a competitive advantage on the field and allow JoePa to continue his race with Bobby Bowden (no stranger to running a successful program that met up with the NCAA investigators from time to time) to replace Bear Bryant as the leader in wins among Division I coaches.

Engaging in academic fraud to keep players eligible or paying players to benefit the program may be a subject of a criminal prosecution but has always been a platform for NCAA sanctions. The NCAA, along with Louis Freeh, has concluded that this toxic environment was allowed to flourish because of the cult of JoePa in Happy Valley and the need to continue the success of the football program at all costs.

I agree with Vis and Mach1 that the current playersshould be allowed to transfer with no loss of eligibility. Otherwise I have no problem with Penn State getting blasted without a death penalty, which would have damaged everyone in Happy Valley who does business on football Saturdays.

Though he decided against shutting down Penn State's football program in the wake of its child sex-abuse scandal, NCAA President Mark Emmert will announce Monday morning broad and substantial sanctions that will severely affect the program for years, an NCAA official with knowledge of the penalties told USA TODAY Sports.

By John Beale, AP
Outlines of removed players are all that remains where Joe Paterno's statue once stood at Penn State.
Enlarge
By John Beale, AP
Outlines of removed players are all that remains where Joe Paterno's statue once stood at Penn State.
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the NCAA has not yet announced the sanctions, says some of the penalties could be non-traditional.
In addressing a case unprecedented in nature and scope, Emmert made a decisive and ground-breaking move, turning to the Division I Board of Directors and NCAA executive committee rather than use the enforcement process the NCAA typically applies to rules violators, according to the NCAA official and another person familiar with the case who is a former NCAA investigator.

The NCAA official said both the board of directors, comprised of 22 university presidents and chancellors, and the executive committee had directed Emmert to look into the Penn State case and to offer recommendations on penalties, which he did. Emmert received broad approval from both groups, the official said, to impose sanctions and bypass the usual investigation process.

Emmert's move is a strong response to a case of misconduct unlike any the association has seen in its history. Rather than view the scandal as an enforcement matter for the infractions committee, which typically acts as judge and jury in NCAA investigations, Emmert saw it as so serious it warranted action by those with more overarching power over the membership.

Emmert will announce the sanctions against Penn State at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis at 9 a.m. ET today, one day after Penn State officials removed coach Joe Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium. Appearing with Emmert will be Ed Ray, president of Oregon State and chairman of the NCAA executive committee.
A report by former FBI director Louis Freeh found that top university leaders, including Paterno, who died in January, covered up information for years that could have stopped Sandusky's attacks on children. Penn State's punishment likely will range from postseason bowl bans and scholarship reductions for the football program to other non-traditional sanctions that the NCAA has the authority to impose. In a statement Sunday, the NCAA said it will impose "corrective and punitive measures."
The NCAA's move to take action on the case is unusual because the issues involve a cover-up of criminal activity rather than a violation of typical association bylaws. No obvious on-field competitive advantage was gained by the misconduct. Some questioned the rush to hand down a decision.
"I am completely in the dark," said Anthony Lubrano, a newly elected Penn State board of trustee member. "I am so frustrated as a trustee. It is really disheartening. I am hearing the same things the (media) are.
"It is unforgiveable that Mark Emmert feels he needs to make an example, if what is being reported (is accurate). Joe Paterno is not responsible for pedophilia in America. Louis Freeh reached an (erroneous) conclusion."
ACC commissioner John Swofford, who had no details on the pending sanctions, on Sunday said the case as "goes well beyond anything related to athletics." Swofford said many individuals working in college sports have wrestled with how to sanction Penn State.
"I don't know if there's anything to compare it to," he said. "So it's uncharted waters …a tragedy from every angle, starting with the young kids that were victims. And the question is, where do you put something like that in terms of NCAA violations, recruiting violations or that type of thing."
Unchartered territory for the NCAA
The case is unprecedented — Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of abuse — and the NCAA underscored the point in departing from its typical investigation protocol.
Said former longtime NCAA enforcement head David Price in an email to USA TODAY Sports: "On the surface, they seem to be separating the issue from the enforcement process. … I am curious to learn what they have decided and what process they are using."
Emmert, who at one point said he had not ruled out shutting down the program for a period of time, told Penn State in November that the NCAA would be examining the exercise of "institutional control."
Only one major college football program, Southern Methodist in the late 1980s, has received the so-called death penalty. Several NCAA former investigators have said that one of the reasons why the death penalty has not been imposed since is because of the devastating effect it had on SMU's football program, which has had three winning seasons since 1986.
According to the NCAA database of major infractions cases, the longest postseason ban issued in major college football has been four years, to Indiana starting in 1960.
Sunday's announcement by the NCAA brought mixed reaction in the Penn State community.
Said Michael Robinson, who helped lead Penn State to the 2005 Big Ten title: "I know the NCAA felt like it had to do something, but Jerry and this scandal — it gave us no competitive advantage, you know? We had no idea. … The NCAA, when it talks about docking scholarships, bowls, wins or whatever, the death penalty, I look at it as if you were doing something to create a competitive advantage. That wasn't the case here."
Said William Earley, a retired Wall Street executive who made five-figure donations to Penn State for 20 years: "Is the punishment expected? Yes. Is it deserved? Yes. It is the beginning of the whole rehabilitation process. Just like taking down the statue. You can't avoid it. It is a perpetual reminder of doing the wrong thing. This is one of the ugliest episodes in American sports."
And former Penn State standout Matt Millen said: "Here is what disappoints me: What are they basing it on? They didn't conduct an investigation. They are going off a report the university paid for. So the university's own words killed them.
"Doesn't the NCAA have an investigative arm? Isn't that what they are supposed to do? … This looks to me like the NCAA is doing it while it is hot. There are some positives: The fact that they are being this swift can help with recruiting ."
According to the version of first-year coach Bill O'Brien's contract available on Penn State's web site, O'Brien, whose base salary this season is $950,000, cannot terminate the agreement because of sanctions against the program without having to give the university a sizeable buyout payment. O'Brien has been steadfast in his commitment to Penn State amid the widening scandal.
Just the beginning of sanctions?
Two former chairmen of the NCAA infractions committee as well as former NCAA investigators said last week that the Penn State case, while reprehensible, might not qualify as an enforcement issue.
"You might argue that by what Sandusky did do and by what Penn State did not do, that it is a violation of ethical conduct, but I don't think I have ever seen it used in that fashion," former infractions committee chairman David Swank said. "My opinion would be that it is not (an enforcement issue). There are other venues to take care of the problems that occurred at Penn State, and one of those is not the NCAA."
Chuck Smrt , who was on the NCAA enforcement staff for more than 17 years, said that the NCAA involvement in the case could open a Pandora's Box for the organization in the future regarding criminal activities on campuses across the nation.
"Then the next time an athletic staff member at another school is involved in criminal activity, are you going to look at whether other staff members were aware and followed up on that?" Smrt said. "When a coach is involved in criminal activity, does every school then need to review who knew what along the way and assess whether there has been unethical conduct? Or does it relate only to the significance of the criminal activity? And then, well, where do you draw that line?"
The former investigators and former infractions committee chairman Tom Yeager said that Penn State was eligible for the death penalty even though it is not a so-called repeat violator — more than one major rule violation within a five-year period — because all punitive options are on the table in cases involving major rules violations.
The NCAA penalties could be just the beginning of sanctions for Penn State. The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education are conducting investigations into the school's actions in relation to the scandal.
Also, athletics director Tim Curley, who is on leave, and former vice president Gary Schultz await trial on charges of failing to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury but have maintained their innocence.
And the sanctions will have far-reaching ramifications for the current Penn State players, who had scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m. Monday, according to Twitter reports.

The NCAA has hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998, the organization said Monday morning.

The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records, the NCAA said.

Penn State must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.

The NCAA revealed the sanctions as NCAA president Mark Emmert and Ed Ray, the chairman of the NCAA's executive committee and Oregon State's president, spoke at a news conference in Indianapolis at the organization's headquarters.

Penn State sanctions

• $60 million fine
• Vacation of wins from 1998-2011 (112 wins)*
• Four-year postseason ban
• Players may transfer and play immediately at other schools
• Athletic department on probation for five years
* Joe Paterno record now 298-136-3; fifth on FBS all-time list

"In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable," Emmert said.

"No price the NCAA can levy with repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims," he said, referring to the former Penn State defensive coordinator convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse last month.

The NCAA said the $60 million was equivalent to the average annual revenue of the football program. The NCAA ordered Penn State to pay the penalty funds into an endowment for "external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university."

With the wins from 1998-2011 vacated, Paterno moves from 409 wins to 298, dropping him from first to 12th on the winningest NCAA football coach list. Penn State will also have six bowl wins and two conference championships erased.

The Penn State athletic program will also be put on five-year probation and must work with an athletic-integrity monitor of NCAA's chosing.

"There is incredible interest in what will happen to Penn State football," Ray said at the news conference. "But the fundamental chapter of this horrific story should focus on the innocent children and and the powerful people who let them down."

The Big Ten will also sanction Penn State. The conference has called an 11 a.m. ET news conference to announce league-related penalties.

Penn State, in a statement released less than an hour after the sanctions were revealed, said it will accept them and that the "ruling holds the university accountable for the failure of those in power to protect children and insists that all areas of the university community are held to the same high standards of honesty and integrity."

"The tragedy of child sexual abuse that occurred at our university altered the lives of innocent children," school president Rodney Erickson said in the news release. "Today, as every day, our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims of Mr. Sandusky and all other victims of child abuse."

The penalties came a day after Penn State removed Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium, a decision that came 10 days after a scathing report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh found that Paterno, with three other top Penn State administrators, had concealed allegations of child sexual abuse made against Sandusky.

The Freeh report concluded their motive was to shield the university and its football program from negative publicity.

"Today we receive a very harsh penalty from the NCAA and as head coach of the Nittany Lions football program, I will do everything in my power to not only comply, but help guide the university forward to become a national leader in ethics, compliance and operational excellence," Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien said in the statement. "I knew when I accepted the position that there would be tough times ahead. But I am committed for the long term to Penn State and our student athletes."

By vacating 112 Penn State victories over a 14-year period, the sanctions cost Paterno 111 wins. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will now hold the top spot in the NCAA record book with 377.

The scholarship reductions mean that Penn State's roster will be capped at 65 scholarship players within a couple of seasons. The normal scholarship limit for major college football programs is 85. Playing with 20 less is crippling to a program that tries to compete at the highest level of the sport.

Biggest Postseason Bans

Penn State was hit with a four-year postseason ban from the NCAA on Monday. The penalties also include a $60 million fine and vacation of wins dating to 1998. Here's a list of the longest postseason bans for FBS programs since 1960. No team has ever received a five-year ban.
Other FBS Programs To Receive At Least
a 3-Year Postseason Ban Since 1960
School Report year Length
of ban
Indiana 1960 4 years
• Improper recruiting inducements
Oklahoma St. 1989 3 years
• Improper financial aid, extra benefits
Michigan St. 1976 3 years
• Extra benefits, improper recruiting entertainment
Houston 1966 3 years
• Extra benefits, improper recruiting entertainment
-- Source: NCAA Major Infractions Database

The NCAA took unprecedented measures with the decision to penalize Penn State without the due process of a Committee on Infractions hearing, bypassing a system in which it conducts its own investigations, issues a notice of allegations and then allows the university 90 days to respond before a hearing is scheduled.

Following the hearing, the Infractions Committee then usually takes a minimum of six weeks, but it can take upwards of a year to issue its findings.

But in the case of Penn State, the NCAA appeared to use the Freeh report -- commissioned by the school's board of trustees -- instead of its own investigation.

"We cannot look to NCAA history to determine how to handle circumstances so disturbing, shocking and disappointing," Emmert said in the statement. "As the individuals charged with governing college sports, we have a responsibility to act. These events should serve as a call to every single school and athletics department to take an honest look at its campus environment and eradicate the 'sports are king' mindset that can so dramatically cloud the judgment of educators."

NCAA Division I Board of Directors and/or the NCAA Executive Committee granted Emmert the authority to punish through the nontraditional methods.

"It was a unanimous act," Ray said. "We needed to act."

Penn State athletics had been given no indication from the NCAA about what sanctions or penalties were to be levied on the department and football program, a source with direct knowledge of the situation in State College told ESPN.com's Andy Katz on Sunday night. If this were a traditional infractions case, the athletic department would have known up to 24 hours in advance.

A trustee said Penn State has hired Gene Marsh, a lawyer for Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham, Ala., and a former member and chair of the NCAA Infractions Committee. Last week, ESPN contacted Marsh, who also previously represented former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, and he refused to confirm or deny he had been retained by Penn State.

A former Committee on Infractions chairman and current Division I Appeals Committee member told ESPN.com's Katz on Sunday the NCAA's penalizing of an institution and program for immoral and criminal behavior also breaks new ground.

The former chair, who has been involved with the NCAA for nearly three decades, said he couldn't use his name on the record since the case could come before him and the committee he still serves on in an appeals process.

"This is unique and this kind of power has never been tested or tried," the former chair said. "It's unprecedented to have this extensive power. This has nothing to do with the purpose of the infractions process. Nevertheless, somehow (the NCAA president and executive board) have taken it on themselves to be a commissioner and to penalize a school for improper conduct."

The chair said that the NCAA was dealing with a case that is outside the traditional rules or violations. He said this case does not fall within the basic fundamental purpose of NCAA regulations.

"The purpose of the NCAA is to keep a level playing field among schools and to make sure they use proper methods through scholarships and etcetera," the chair said. "This is not a case that would normally go through the process. It has nothing to do with a level playing field. It has nothing to do with whether Penn State gets advantages over other schools in recruiting or in the number of coaches or things that we normally deal with."

The NCAA, the chair said, had never gotten involved in punishing schools for criminal behavior.

"The criminal courts are perfectly capable of handling these situations," the former chair said. "This is a new phase and a new thing. They are getting into bad behavior that are somehow connected to those who work in the athletic department.

"This is an important precedent. And it should be taken with extreme care."

Under NCAA rules covering postseason bans, players are allowed to transfer without sitting out a season as long as their remaining eligibility is shorter than or equal to the length of the ban.

The NCAA, heavily criticized for its sometimes-ponderous pace in deciding penalties as scandals mounted at Ohio State, Auburn, USC and elsewhere, acted with unprecedented swiftness in arriving at the sanctions for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook.

Emmert had put the Penn State matter on the fast track. Other cases that were strictly about violating the NCAA rulebook have dragged on for months and even years. There was no sign that the infractions committee so familiar to college sports fans was involved this time around as Emmert moved quickly, no doubt aided by the July 12 release of the report by former FBI director Louis Freeh and what it said about Paterno and the rest of the Penn State leadership.

The investigation focused partly on university officials' decision not to go to child-welfare authorities in 2001 after a coaching assistant told Paterno that he had seen Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the locker room showers. Penn State officials already knew about a previous allegation against Sandusky by that time, from 1998.

The leaders, the report said, "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from authorities, the university's board of trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large."

Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

Emmert had warned Penn State last fall that the NCAA would be examining the "exercise of institutional control" within the athletic department, and said it was clear that "deceitful and dishonest behavior" could be considered a violation of ethics rules. So, too, could a failure to exhibit moral values or adhere to ethics guidelines.

The Freeh report also said school had "decentralized and uneven" oversight of compliance issues -- laws, regulations, policies and procedures -- as required by the NCAA.

Recent major scandals, such as improper payments to the family of Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush while he was at Southern California, and players at Ohio State trading memorabilia for cash and tattoos, have resulted in bowl bans and the loss of scholarships.